will chickens eat ants?

[kajira]

what can I say, I like digging up old threads...
We are getting chickens this weekend finally!!!

I can't wait for them to destroy the crazy amount of ant colonies I have.

I was looking this topic up, because our backyard is starting to get over run with tiny red fire ants. We are building a new coop, and I tentatively, was hoping to teach the chickens to destroy the fire ants.... I hate them.

 

[Flock In Texas]

I'm building my first tractor. I look forward to rolling it over an ant mound to see if they will exterminate for me. If they like them, that may help decide where I park the tractor.

 

[Bronco21]

I live in the country on 3 1/2 acres outside of San Antonio, Texas and after every rain we have so many new ant mounds some are fire ants some are crazy ants, some are different, we also have all kinds of spiders and every pestillence known to mankind! I am assuming that when I get it all together and get my girls, they will free range on all these kinds of pests? Maybe not the occasional small brown and med sized black tarantullas! (I wish I were kidding)

 

[beltonhunter]

I found my pullets a tarantula a couple days ago. I tried giving it to the mature rooster. Because I was unsure if it was safe to eat. But the pullets ripped it apart leg by leg devouring it instantly

 

[Bonnie in western WA]

I've finally finished my coop and am about the start the run and I just noticed that there is a pretty good sized ant hill in the run area. Does anyone know if the chickens will just dig this up and eat the occupants, or should I dig it up and try to get rid of the things before I move the chickens in? These are mediaum sized black ants. I'm in upstate NY and I don't think we have any ants around here that are really aggressive or, gulp, carniverous. Any thoughts?

I read in Mother Earth News that chickens will eat ants, including fire ants. I sure hope so because I have thatching ants...bazillion miles of underground tunnels with a kazillion number of above ground ants in/on many ant mounds.

 

[KiekenKot]

Sorry to dig up this old topic...But I have a funny story.

I'm a potter who uses a shared atelier space. One of the other clay enthusiasts had rolled out clay, cut it into heart shapes, and then wrapped it in a piece of old bed sheet, put it between two boards, folded plastic around the whole thing, and put it on the lowest shelf of a closed cabinet. And then forgot about it.

So, today we find this little project, and somehow, a whole ant nest had gotten inside the plastic wrapping. There were thousands of ants and pupae, and they were harmless black garden ants. It was fascinating, I have never seen a whole working ant nest out in the open like that. But of course, we could not keep it in the house. So what to do with it?

Feed them to the chickens of course! We weren't really sure if they would eat the ants, but oh boy they went completely nuts. I have never seen chickens eat so frantically- they devoured the ants, the pupae, it was something to behold. Like all their birthdays came at once! I was almost sorry for the ants. The 3 of them they went trough the whole nest in under 30 minutes. So- garden ants? Feed them to the chickens!

 

[murgiyan]

My chicks are not showing much interest in ants That got all over their food. They are scratching themselves so I am wondering if they are getting on their bodies.